The BEST Shape for a Speaker REVEALED

Interesting. This would have been more understandable if you had comparison speakers to demonstrate your theory. Logically, what your saying makes sense but just like telling someone about how a roller coaster feels, they have to see, hear, and feel it for themselves to understand. 👍😎

Wow... There sure are a lot of speaker designers/engineer/experts commenting on this video😂

This is all a technical perspective but now I would like to hear what these differences sound like in the real world.

In my limited awareness it seems like most of the speakers I've ever seen have centred drivers and sharp, square shapes as well as sharp edges. Are most speakers bad?

Would it be good design to have soft sound absorbing material on the front of the speaker, or at least something around the edges?


I did find this video interesting. I'm currently trying to figure how to make proper box design for some very small drivers which I'm repurposing from an old Bose desktop speaker system (the companion 2 series II).

So if the sphere is best. Why is it so rare. Orbs are the only ones I can think of.?

Who can HEAR edge diffraction? Especially in untreated rooms?

So my Cones of Dunshire speakers are okay?

But.. the pipes. The pipes are calling.

Talk about the Cerwin Vega Earthquake speaker design

There’s a golden ratio in the cookbook lol can’t remember what it is

When I was first working, so that is in the 1970’s, a workmate of mine built speakers he claimed had the best design possible. I do not know what was inside, but they were a fiberglass sphere. And I have to say, they just had something in the sound they produced.

Here's an easy tip: when you are looking at a speaker and find Genelec logo, you know it is good.

Joking aside, you should look at the Genelec 8000 series speaker for an example of nearly optimal basic design.

Minion speaker

Its called a football in every coutry beside few...cause you hit the ball with your foot, thats also why all people around the world are confused why you call american football - FOOTball, but you play it with hands.

soon as I see the person selling something in a store I never watch this channel again

Americans are weird😅
"Football is obviously played by holding the not ball shaped ball in your hands and running across the field"

And what's the game you play with your feet?
"Obviously that's soccer"

😂 Wtf

opinion on the OB-4 Magic radio?????

b&w 802?

Not generally someone who ever cared about this...until I bought a Tesla. Am constantly blown away by the sound quality. I mean, I listened to music as a kid. My brother was a notable musician and when I hear songs from my childhood in the Tesla. Wow! Totally appreciate the sound quality and it has me asking...how do they do that?

Soccer ball for sorcerers counting in gallons.

had this idea many years ago. didnt know much but made a fiberglass enclosure with a styrofoam ball to try it. as i didnt know or have the tools to measure it. i left the project (was around my early 20s).maybe should give it a go again.

Diffraction is not very important.

Any front firing speaker sounds terrible. The right design is as close to a point source as possible. And the cabinet itself must be acoustically isolated.

have you heard the old Sonab OD11's? The tweeter is NOT in an enclosure.

a cylinder will not have any diffraction if the speaker is as wide as the cylinder.

nice and very informative video ive seen in such a long time.. thanks yt recommendations

This vid may explain why 2" tweeters in a block of polystyrene with a single wrap of duct tape for added wall strength,then both speakers wedged into the corners of my ute dash against the windscreen sound so good vs in a door,(didn't think a door would be the best place since woofer was there just lower, that & cutting non std holes). I figured at the time sound bounced of the angled glass (dash is angled as well) would be a good option, however for whatever reason the placement of hung low woofers & high mounted tweeters blends the sound really well better than i ever thought as in the end putting tweeters there was just easier lol .I was expecting high pitch & not very good however it was the perfect place for them.

... thank you sir! a very critical point discussed very successfully here.

snore!

No, a sphere is not the best enclosure. These decades old graphs made by Olsen are made up! You will not find reliable measurements that confirm his assumptions.

A sphere also diffracts, just not as sharply at one singular point in space.
However for anything that does not have constant directivity, which covers basically everything without a properly designed waveguide, you should not design the cabinet such that the soundwaves have to bend (diffract) around the cabinet very close to the source, where the level is the highest.

Rather you should keep the point of diffraction further away with a flat baffle and then have a large enough roundover on the edge, which is frequency dependent of course.
For a sub and midbass: Don't bother.
For midrange and tweeter: Get as much roundover as possible.

That explains why the Adam a7x has the slanted corners. Really want a pair one day

Thank you sir for that quick tip on diffraction.

"Linkwitz nods"

How is diffraction with horns?

A sphere is the best shape for a mono speaker. Try making them stereo image. See if it's possible to create a 3D sound field. Here's the thing, a speaker on axis clear of walls directed at you can be a great center speaker or a great mono speaker. Split the speaker into a stereo image and suddenly now the ideal speaker must account for lateral stereo sum roll off just like two drivers, or a main an a sub have to transition evenly.

2 spheres can't produce a 3D stereo image. All it can do at best is pan left and right and pass mono speaker tests.

Interesting.

please stop all typing button sounds while spoon-feeding text

Nautilus... can you explain that?

It seems that this principal is seen most concretely when looking at open baffle speakers. Some of these things have huge baffles for tiny drivers.

In other news, I’m just finding this channel. Excellent stuff - subscribed!

Monkey Coffin Box size
RtR eviction series
Must be able to shake the neighbors paintings loose.

Super interesting. Thank you.

"I'll call it soccer ball because we are in America". This sentence contains 2 points of diffraction 😂

In most cases the difference is 95% placebo. Playing those speakers in a room filled with "edgy" things and sound waves bouncing off the walls and ceiling diffraction is all over the place. There could be a difference when the speakers are played in an anechoic chamber but still the difference is undetectable by human ears. I would say this is some audiophile stuff people like to talk about.

This video should be titled 'best shape for a speaker ENCLOSURE'. 0 info about best speaker shape.

I didn't expect Seth Rogen explaining me speaker enclosure designs. 😄

The best speakers i ever listened to were housed in concrete spheres.
They clearly weren't portable but they were so clear. Amazing.

What about the "snail shell" shape?

A point about different dimensions:
You also want to avoid numbers that are related to each other by fractions that use small numbers. For example, you don't want two dimensions where one is 2/3rds the other or 1/2 the other or 3/4ths the other. This is because the ripples in the frequency response curve for each distance will line up with each other at some frequency if you do that. If the dimensions are things like 7/12ths each other this doesn't happen as much.
When it comes to selecting a box's overall dimensions, you also want to apply the rule of making the dimensions not the same and not related by small numbered fractions. This is because of a second order effect that makes smaller but non-zero ripples in the frequency response.